ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the processes and research thinking involved in a creative early childhood arts education project in New Zealand called MAPS (Move, Act, Play, Sing). Drawing inspiration from the concepts and thinking of Deleuze, the authors use a philosophical, narrative approach to view their emergent research process by constructing a story: “The Ocean Swimmer”. The story helps to bring out the relational character of the research process and the way the research participants (university researchers, community artists, teachers, parents, children) were connected to it. The chapter concludes with three short vignettes from the project that convey different aspects of this relationality within a community arts context.
